Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2019 02:29:12 +0000 From: wayne unknown Subject: Vainglorious Chapter 18 Chapter 18 Tearing it all down Day 45 Cry Havoc 5 am I checked on Dez & his harem & as expected, the 13 demon bunnies had multiplied into a thousand Demon bunnies overnight. It's a good thing I made use of Environmental control to increase the reproductive rate of plants and animals underground somewhat to speed up their progress. Last night I had planted Devil's Weed, Spirit Weed & some basic grasses. Spirit Weed is a useful alchemic ingredient, it's a white fern like plant, with a black trim on it's outer edges. It's used to make analgesics & alcohol as even eaten raw it is mildly toxic, with mild hallucinogenic & numbing properties. Harvesting the plant in Beast Forest is a semi popular harvesting mission for noobs. It's also sometimes abused by noobs for it's ability to make you a little loopy and sleepy, the things people do to avoid paying for drinks at a tavern. It is a hilarious sight seeing 'drunk' & 'high' noobs lounging about in a forest eating Spirit Weed by the handful until they get murderized by Demon bunnies, monstrous boars or Demon Deers. For level 1-10 demon bunnies, the Spirit Weed keeps them fed and passive, which makes it all the better to farm them for meat. Spirit Weed is also a useful cash crop, for the eventual tavern & for it's use in various potions. I lead a selection of a hundred Lizard men in sorting through the demon bunnies. I've assigned them the role of Lizard Farmers, in charge of maintaining the supply of bunnies & 'crops' for the town from now on, they're level 90 so they'll probably not die that quickly. 9 out of ten males are grabbed by my Lizard bunny ranchers and delivered to the newly made Mall to be butchered, after all males are totally expendable and only a bare minimum is necessary for breeding, the rest are surplus to requirements. It's somewhat cruel but I can't have my Lizard Men & Trolls starve, I need them to be my meat shields and pike men. The things I do for love or vengeance... I have a quick roam around the Troll Forest and pick up some new demon bunny does, cant let the demon bunnies get too incestuous, wouldn't want them to turn out weird or anything. After I drop off the does, I informed the Lizard Farmers that it'd be their job to cull the male population every 5 hours or so and keep an eye out for aggressive behavior & manage the populations accordingly. The females would be set aside for Dez to play with and if he can't play stud for all the does, he can have some back up studs to take over. With the prodigious breeding rates of the demon bunnies, their numbers should stay high and stable for the future. Despite the lack of normal sunlight, the mana rich environment allow the plants to germinate, grow and reproduce at a mind boggling rate. I spend a little time working on improving the underground structures, organizing the plants into 'lawns' to add a bit of vibrancy to the area. I'd have to pick up some phosphorescent moss at some point to add a little mood lighting to the place. I build a specific cavern for Dez, kind of trapping him there to play stud by making the tunnels out too small for him to exit. This way I could make sure he would interfere with the harvesting and I can use our soul contract to summon him whenever I needed him. Eventually I'd have the apprentice knights help with the farming by raising their own Doom Wolves as mounts. Any dead Doom Wolves be fed to Dez's bitches, so they'd gain levels & weight from scavenging, so they'd be on permanent sex duty. Also if I could keep the resulting offspring around level 10, they'd provide more meat for eating. Goodbye little bunnies, you're going to make for the basis of my dark empire. Now all I need is some necromancer chefs. 7 am I was in hour two of training with Gregor and about half of the Named within the newly built Training Grounds, working on building up my skill with a mace. I had deliberately handicapped myself using [Blood Filtration] to reduce my stats to my original levels so that I could work on my techniques, rather than relying on my excessively high raw stats. [Blood Filtration: Channel a certain amount of power into blood] Unfortunately when man plans, Gods laugh... I had such a well thought out plan too... 6- 8 am training with the Named with Gregor to advance my warrior skills which have been rusting and advance from just a Swordsman to a Knight or Dark Paladin myself. 8am to 10 training with Hugo as how to improve my spells & usage in battles. 10am to 12 working with blacksmith Max to learn the basics of blacksmithing along with select Lizards & trolls, as well as a little bit of enchanting theory. 12 to 2pm training with Bone Zone to advance my Priest of Death further 2- 4 pm training with Ethan the alchemist to advance my alchemy skills further, progressing from level 30 alchemist towards Alchemist level 50, then I can Bestow certain minions with the Alchemist Class. 4-6 pm Follow Spammalot on his rounds, overseeing Enchanting, try and learn the theory behind Enchanting. 6-8 Work with Caleb on reinforcing buildings, improving my 'construction' skills. 8- 10 pm death battles with minions to train necromancy skills like death knights who need training/retraining and also to whittle out the weaker minions. A well organized 14 hour work day, carefully crafted after extensive conversation with the necromancers as to their regular schedules. Of course Hugo showed up to ruin my well planned day with news that a small army had shown up outside the walls. Unfortunately it wasn't another group of Wild Trolls come to solve my gold problems like I had hoped. Instead it was a mix of Kingdom troops, Adventurers & members of the Helios Church of both the Native & Champion variety. That wasn't the end of it, Hugo had even worse news to share. Apparently the entire Kingdom's military forces, including Helio's Church & the Adventurer's Guild had been issued an extermination quest of all Necromancers belonging to Necropolis. This was going to get complicated. I should have expected this. Every action has a consequence after all, damn Newton's 3rd law. I used [God's Eye] to look outside the walls and the composition of enemy troops bugged me. I only got a split-second snap-shot due to my currently low stats but it was long enough to show that it had a mix of Mages, Knights, Archers & Priests. It was only a matter of time before they called in reinforcements. I'd show them what happened to fucking assholes who interrupted my well crafted and extensive scheduling with their stupid cannon fodder. Fucking idiots. I told Hugo to gather any of the necromancers who were available, I think only 2 others would be available. I told Morganna to gather the Lizard Mages to reinforce the walls from hostile earth mages as necessary. Meanwhile I gathered my own small force of elites to make the most of such a useful opportunity, I gathered Gulch, Beta, Charlie, Delta & Echo, along with 5 of the highest Named Lizards, Arsenic, Belladonna (a rare female Lizard Warrior), Caladium, Dogsbane, Euphorbia (I Named most of the remaining lizards after poisonous plants for some whimsical reason). I went out to meet our guests with 5 Named Trolls, 5 Named Lizard Raiders (Lizard mounted on Doom Wolf), Max, Bone Zone & Hugo. In the time for me to organize my troops, their reinforcements had arrived and were in formation to resist a monster surge. The numbers looked bad, 1000 against 19, not exactly great odds. I summoned Dez & Angus to fight beside me. Hugo, Max & Bone Zone, summoned 20 Undead each, each of them having a Death Knight, Lich and about 3 to 4 Zombie Mages with the rest being Ghouls. Now it was 81 against a thousand troops. Much better odds. I swigged a Stone Jar of my own blood, restoring my stats to 'normal' & I cast [Quicksand] on the group that was busily organizing itself into formation. Then I rushed right into the midst, only to find myself suffering the pain from multiple layers of [Sanctuary] spells. Fucking bastards had prepared for defending against Necromancer summons. I guess that should have been obvious in hindsight. Fuck it. I proceeded regardless, casting [Plague] & [Wretched Tentacles] on those around me. It was only a mild inconvenience to the enemy as the Priests cast [Cure] & the Holy Knights in the group cast [Holy Light] to attack the [Wretched Tentacles]. Some of the ones touched by the Wretched Tentacles were briefly afflicted by madness, sickness or blindness. The annoying Priests negated the effects of [Wretched Tentacles] with [Cure] & [Purification] rendering my efforts basically meaningless. My darkness & death spells were ineffective against such a large group backed by so many priests. It didn't matter, I used [Shadow Step] to jump from one shadow to the next towards the Priests, my primary target. I used [God's Eye] to check on the others, they had used my distraction to advance on the enemy soldiers. Using [Noble Insight] I could tell that Gulch & Beta's demon form were weak to the [Sanctuary] and suffered steady damage over time. They were being hit hard by the front line melee troops, taking heavy damage. Their absurdly high health & [Demonic Regeneration] was barely keeping them from dying to the barrage of enemy attacks. The 3 other Named Trolls were slamming into the front line unimpeded by the Sanctuary spells. The Lizard Raiders had bypassed the front line troops busy with the Trolls to target the squishier mages & archers in the middle of the formation. Their Doom Wolf mounts used [Gigantism] boosted by [Alphas Roar] to tear into the enemy archers & mages. The layers of sanctuary spells cast by 50 or so Priests & Paladins made it harder for the Lizard Raiders to score a kill in the short time they had as Sanctuary increased the passive recovery rates of those within it's range. Still it kept the squishier members on their toes & distracted the troops and a few Mages died from insta kills. The Necromancers weren't doing that great, their Zombies died without much fanfare unable to get in close to kill. They were left mostly behind their Death Knights along with their Liches using debuffs & poisons spells to attack the enemy. Despite how much was going on, only about half a minute had gone by before I reached the first Priest. That was all the time necessary to shift the tides of battle in my favor. The Holy Knights & Paladins tried their best to stop me with their swords, maces, spears & their various spells but my vitality was over 9000 and I had 3 forms of regeneration keeping my health up. Unfortunately for them, their efforts were ultimately futile. I charged into the first priest and savaged his throat with my teeth and claws, drinking his blood and with a quick snap of the neck he was dead. Just like that one of their healers was dead. All of which took only a couple of seconds. I gained some stats, mostly intelligence but most important of all I gained more dark power which would help boost my death spells further. I was now deep into their midst, close to all their priests, paladins & holy knights who were dressed in golden armor or simply wearing armor imprinted with the golden sun insignia of the Helios Church. I raised the Priest as an undead using [Death Knight] which sealed up the damage done to it's throat. Unfortunately 10 seconds after it's rebirth as my undead weapon it died a second permanent death. It provided little more than a distraction to keep the Paladins & Priests from properly maintaining Sanctuary. I cast [Quicksand] which further helped to desecrate the land, more so with the blood currently being spilled, further befouling the area. I used [Shadow Step] to arrive next to the nearest Priest, biting him and drinking down all his oh so useful blood in seconds. Cloth robes provide little protection against vampire teeth. The Priest's blood, through the passive effect of [Vampirism] recovered some of the damage caused by his cohorts. With two dead Priests, the Sanctuary spells were already weakening from less Priests maintaining the effect. Combined with the effects of the land's desecration & the surviving priests wanting to avoid death by scrambling behind the sturdier holy knights, shifting their focus, my army was doing heavier damage to them. Between the 3 types of regeneration, plus [Iron skin] & [Aura Body], damage was fairly low despite over a hundred enemies attacking me. Amazing the difference a few days make to survivability. [Aura Body: When Aura is channeled into the body, it can provide a multiplicative effect to physical attributes, internal defense & recovery.] Dez & Angus were nearby, ripping out throats of Archers & Mages. Watching Dez tackle Mages to the ground and rip their throats out and feast on their blood was deeply amusing. Sadly I couldn't fully appreciate the view for long as I was busy eating my way through the priests. Each devoured Priest gave me more Dark power and stats. My defensive and recovery skills were leveling up through all the attacks against me. I cast spells at random to sow chaos & mayhem, using [Bind], [Quicksand] & [Plague] boosted with Dark power. I used [Death Knight] again on another dead Priest. It shifted the focus of the Holy Knights & Paladins into attacking it for a moment. It also didn't survive long under the failing effects of [Sanctuary] & multiple [Holy Light]s & blessed weapon attacks. I switched targets to a nearby Holy Knight and drove my fist into his armored throat shattering his gorget. I dove head first into the debris laden throat to rip out his throat, drinking his blood and raised him as a [Death Knight]. This one I used Dark Power on to increase his damage & health, maybe he'd last for like 30 seconds. I didn't even try and control him, the spell would advance from use, & the continued existence of the Death Knight & any kills he made even if he wasn't controlled by me. This Death Knight had armor & corrupted holy spells & [Life Drain], he attacked his former colleagues and I made use of the distraction to make more of a mess of their back line. I Shadow Stepped towards Priests to rip out their throats. I killed and raised more Holy Knights as Death Knights. All the while the Lizard Raiders harried their mid line & the Trolls hammered away at the front lines. I even tried to use [Corruption] on one of the Paladins but it took 30 seconds to cast & it was countered in ten seconds by a different Paladin who used [Purification]. It was a disappointing waste of the 10 Dark power that I had to sacrifice to change his alignment. I used [God's Eye] again after I heard a weird noise from behind me. It was a hundred Trolls backed by a hundred Lizard Raiders who advanced on the chaos eagerly. The fresh troops crashed onto the enemy warriors without mercy. It only took a couple of minutes to finish off the slaughter, about twenty enemies tried to run but they were chased after by the blood thirsty Lizard Raiders. Hugo hijacked my Death Knights and the true fun began. PLUNDER! About a third of the army were Champions, or had paid for the privilege of resurrection or had soul bound their equipment, so their stuff disappeared with their corpses, the inconsiderate bastards. The rest of the torn, bloodied & in some cases crushed corpses however were lootable. I took a third of the corpses of Priests & Paladins for my future Death Knight & Lich collection. The remainder of them were taken by the other Necromancers to be used, sold or traded, sans armor in some cases. As a reward for their victory, the rest of the equipment was distributed to my monstrous minions for a good days work. My Priest levels for Terminus and Abyss rose by 5 & 6 respectively from the battle, what with all the death & poisoning & killing of enemy priests and the unholy resurrections. All in all I gained 30 Dark Power from the battle, 15 general Dark power & 10 Terminus power & 5 Abyss Power, I did lose 10 from the ultimately pointless [Corruption]. I also gained a new ability from the dead priests [Cursed Grounds], the corrupted version of [Sanctuary]. [Cursed Grounds: Through the use of Dark Power or the acts of despicable desecration, the lands themselves are blighted. Increased effect to curses, poisons & undead summons.] Stage 2 Dogs of War I returned to Troll Town, or more accurately the newly renamed Nightshade, it had a double meaning, the name of the plant that was historically used for beauty products & vicious murders & a roundabout tribute to Abyss. I'm not 100% committed to the name but it'll do for now, until I can think of something better or I get bored of it, or Ren is truly back and I'll name it after him or have him rename the stupid place. I am so over being King, there's a never ending stream of tasks to complete & apparently endless distractions to get in the way. The things I do to upgrade my zombie boyfriend into a dhampir again. Anyway, this recent skirmish has refreshed my memory about the reason wars are fought, while it's very costly to maintain & supply a standing army, the profits from plunder are truly remarkable. I had gained enough equipment to equip roughly 400 troops and Max could probably repair some of the damaged armor to equip more. Or at the very least, I'll have some scrap metal to practice blacksmithing on later. The problem was, my whole schedule had been thrown off & I had a bad feeling this would not be the end of my issues with armed forces. The fact that there was an army made up of so many different factions bodes poorly for my leisure time prospects. There were the Helios members with their golden sun insignia, Champions belonging to the Giant Guild with the insignia of a lion's face (don't ask me what it's supposed to mean). They were mixed in with the kingdom troops with their diamond insignia. I used a mana overloaded [God's Eye] which allowed me to see most of the kingdom at once. There was a force of over ten thousand hanging out near the newly fortified Vampire's Cave (it looked like a crude stone fort), with a force of two hundred thousand on either side of Necropolis. There was also thousands of troops stationed in Beast Forest, Doom Plains and about a thousand camped near the Troll spawn point. I couldn't see everything as I could only maintain such a large God's Eye for about ten seconds before I ran out of mana. Still long enough to know that turtling up right now would be the worst idea. I would have to go on the offensive & regain the initiative, even if it might result in some heavy losses. I sent a message to Steve, to get some more information directly. Steve was back in Necropolis organizing the defenses. At the moment, all the Kingdom was doing was laying siege to Necropolis & raiding or destroying all their newly gained outposts including that of Giant City. Apparently even the Giants had their own city on the tops of the Cliffs bordering the sea. I'd have to check it out at some point now that I know it exists. Supposedly Steve found it using a banshee as a scout. I called forth an emergency meeting of my troops. It was time to wage war.. I gathered 4500 troops, 1500 Trolls, 1500 Lizard Raiders & 3 Necromancers. I had a skeleton crew remain behind for defense, mostly women, children and a small selection of reserve troops. First stop was to clear out the thousand or so troops camped near the Wild Troll spawn spot. It was surprisingly easy to kill them, they only had ten priests and a hundred holy knights backing up Kingdom Troops. None of the priests had set up [Sanctuary]. The highest leveled member in their army was level 85, suffice to say they died without much dignity or glory. Their equipment was added to our forces & the necromancers gained more corpses for their collections. I led the army towards Ogre Forest, having told Steve to tell whoever was in charge of their current fortifications in the Vampire Cave to attack when they heard me coming... The Lizard Raiders struck hard & fast, using the combination of [Alpha's Roar] & [Gigantism] for maximum burst damage, knocking down the first line of defense, the Holy Knights & Paladins. Their army had an upside down U formation of 'tanks' forming an outer perimeter of shields and swords with their Mages & Archers in the middle. Interesting enough, way at the back, past the priests was a shitty shanty town, complete with food stalls & merchants selling weapons & armors. Capitalism is incorrigible. Making use of the blitz attack of the Lizard Raiders, I cast [Quicksand] on the downed warriors in the middle of their shield wall to slow their ability to get on their feet again. I used [Shadow Step] to land deep in the midst of the enemy formation, next to an unfortunate Archer. I had learned from the previous battle and immediately cast a mana overloaded & wide scale [Quicksand] to slow followed by [Earthquake] to wound & disrupt. It proved a useful distraction for the lizard Raiders to retreat temporarily so that the next wave made up of Trolls could attack. 1500 Trolls attacking after the wave of Lizard Raiders & [Quicksand] & [Earthquake] tore carefully built formations apart, inflicted high fatalities to the enemies soft center. The Necromancer Dhampirs rushed in behind them to make use of the chaos to dig into enemy mages, protected by a little over 80 undead & strong [Mana Shields]. Sure hundreds of Trolls died in the retaliation as the shield wall turned inwards to attack & the Mages & Archers used mass bombardment tactics to spam spells and arrows to kill the Trolls with high burst damage before they could regenerate health. Then the Lizard Raiders attacked again, having collected dropped weapons along the way to strike at enemies like light cavalry. The Lizard Men used mostly spears, javelins & swords to attack out of position troops. The retaliation to the Lizard Raiders charge was even more brutal as Mages & Archers targeted their Doom Wolf Mounts, throwing them off, only for them to get crushed under the weight of infuriated tankers or entangled with their downed mounts before dying. Lizard raiders died left & right as I unloaded all sorts of spells at the enemies, mostly of the earth & necromancy type. I used [Quicksand] to slow enemies, I used [Plague] repeatedly on groups of enemies, I tore out throats of Priests & Paladins whenever I found them, drinking their blood before killing them, steadily gaining dark power with every death. I cast [Raise Skeleton] & [Death Knight] at random on anything I killed, not caring about maintaining control over them, just letting them loose on the living. I gained even more dark power from Terminus from the careless murderous mayhem unleashed by my undead. They attacked anything living, friend or foe... I gained [Pestilence] & [Zombie] sometime during the battle, which was quickly added to my repertoire of carnage causing abilities. [Pestilence: Afflict an enemy with a deadly, highly contagious disease] [Zombie: Raise a Zombie with 10% of it's original stats, will inflict poison damage at close range.] Finally our reinforcements showed up breaking through the line of paladins & priests that had been previously maintaining a strong defensive line against undead summons. A thousand necromancers with ten times as many undead swarmed forth to help finish off the remaining enemies with a pincer attack. I would have appreciated if they were a minute earlier but you can't get everything you want. The victory was costly, I lost just a little over two thirds of my troops in the battle but the survivors were leaner and meaner from the experience. The surviving Trolls had all evolved at least once, with about 20 of them evolving twice into their level 100 forms. What was interesting was that my Named Trolls had become Greater Onis, while my unnamed level 100 Trolls had evolved into Iron Trolls. It was odd, it made me wonder if the Naming was significant or whether it was something else. Too many variables to determine cause yet. 635 Trolls remained, 20 level 100, 615 trolls ranging from level 80-95. All the surviving Doom Wolves had become Doom Wolf Alphas, ranging from level 70 to 85. The Doom Wolves had suffered the greatest losses, with only 283 remaining The surviving Lizard men had hit level 100, gaining [Camoflage] making them even deadlier on the battlefield, 412 Lizards remained. Dez had hit level 100 and gained a new ability [Multiplication]. [Multiplication: Can produce a duplicate with the same stats & abilities of the prime originator that will remain active for ten seconds. Duplicate shares any experience gained with original after dissolution] It's potential for OPness was quickly evident during the battle. I used Bestowal on my veteran soldiers, bestowing them all with Warrior Class. I'd have to think more on their sub classes later. All the bipeds had weapons and armors. I didn't know what to do about the Doom Wolves, they were more squishy than I would like and I couldn't equip them with armor without depriving them of the use of [Gigantism]. I'd have to think about it more later. I Bestowed Dez the Mage class as his sub class, to make his special ability more OP. His level 100 ability costs 200 mana, which for a normal level 100 demon bunny would allow it to use it's ability twice in a hundred minute period. Something useful as a temporary decoy or an aid in a really tough battle but nothing too game breaking. However Dez is not a normal demon bunny. He has gained a few hundred extra intelligence from drinking the blood of Lizardmen & Mages. With Bestowal of Mage class, his mana pool has been quintupled & now his duplicates will be able to use [Multiplication] too. He will be a one bunny army. Then I checked all the notifications that had racked up while I had been distracted tearing people limb from limb, drinking their blood and throwing spells around like there was no tomorrow. I gained a couple of levels to my main class. I hit the max level cap for my sub class for Necromancer which gained me [Lich]. [Lich: Raise a Lich to serve you with it's magic, its magic will reflect it's previous life & the nature of it's summoner.] I also hit Mage level 100 & gained [Mana Shield]. [Mana Shield: Create a bubble shield of raw mana around caster, absorbing damage from attacks, the stronger the attack the higher the mana consumption necessary to maintain.] I hit level 100 for Death Priest & gained [Poison Nova] & [Entreaty]. [Poison Nova: You have poison in your very soul, forcibly expel it outwards to inflict poison damage. Damage is dependent on levels of poison spells, curse magic & mana expended] [Entreaty: Your Prayers to your chosen god will be heard & you may receive communications from them to further demonstrate your devotions.] I gained a couple of Titles, the Harbinger title & The Oracle of Death. [Harbinger: Your presence on the battlefield heralds excessive death & chaos.] [Effect: Reduced Morale for enemy combatants, increased chance of enemy desertion & routs.] [Oracle of Death: Your words echo with the authority of Terminus, the God of Death.] [Effect: Increased affinity with the dominion of Death, increasing effect of poison & necromancy spells.] [Thrum approves of your military campaigns so far, he grants you the right to grant your subjects the Job of Soldier] Okay then, that's semi useful, a Job is considered a quasi class, it has less significant benefits than a class but it rewarded the Job holder some basic Skills & stat bonuses. Soldier was the most basic of Jobs that could be gained by the lowliest of peasants. The only requirement for Soldier was that you just had to sign your life away to the army. Tom & Tim both had the Job & it provided them with stat bonuses & certain skills that benefited from coordination with other Soldiers. I received a quest update from Terminus... Stage 3 Foul Deed "SERIOUSLY. YOU'VE FUCKING GOT TO BE KIDDING ME." I shouted, tugging at my hair angrily. I had received a 'Revelation', basically a message from Terminus, complete with a vision of Hell... People looked at me weirdly. Trust me, when there's like a little over nine hundred NECROMANCERS giving you the side eye while their skeletons & zombies loot dead merchants and soldiers you know things are bad. Eventually I settled down & reread the notification that stressed me out. I had gained [Entreaty] as a skill but it was rendered unnecessary since I got a direct quest from Terminus himself. FUCKING BASTARD. Quest received: Terminus requests your help in opening a Gate to Hell Objective: Open a Hell Gate There are 4 potential methods for completion available Learn Spatial Magic & Expert Necromancy (Level 200 Recommended) in order to open Hell Gate yourself. Steal Legendary Lich's Luther Dark Grimoire from his current disciple. Current location, the Undead Empire, held by the current Lich King. Purchase Gate within Troll Town & set location to the underworld. Requires 1 billion gold Instigate a million deaths in a day temporarily weakening the barriers between life and death. Once designated death toll is reached, use [Mass Offering] to assign the deaths to Terminus to serve as an anchor to the plane so that the Hell Gate can be opened. Current progress 114000/1000000 time remaining 21.3 hours Reward: Ren's soul/mind returned to his body. Optional Rewards: The demonic Incubus version of your deceased lover depending on the quality of the Hell Gate opened. There was a video attached of something that looked like Ren, if Ren was red with large black wings begging me with watery eyes to bring him back home. There was a thing in the background cloaked in shadows, sitting on a throne made of bones surrounded by imps, demons & undead of all shapes & sizes. I couldn't see his face but I could feel his smugness, I guessed it was Terminus. Well I guess I'm going to have to go on a killing spree... The thought of orchestrating mass murder should bother me but I don't really care, it'll be a good chance to test run [Lich] & [Zombie]. I'm less pleased with hearing the voice of Terminus in my head and the confusing details of the new quest. Only way is forward. Author's note, Ghouls are the upgraded version of zombies that can be summoned when [Zombie] is level 5. From now on I'm going to distinguish between the 3 types of dark power that Derek receives. Dark power (non specific dark power gained as a result of divine power stolen through blood drinking), Abyss power (rewarded for killing Enemy Priests & Paladins & Templars), Terminus power (rewarded for use of poison to kill enemies, massacres, genocides & undead summonings)